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Since professional HOA management companies are intended to be a tool for an HOA board of directors, it’s important for stakeholders to measure their chosen management company’s performance to determine if they are meeting the needs of the overall community. Whether your management company has been with you for decades or a few years, it’s never a bad time to assess the market to analyze if they...

Case study 1: Communication with homeowners One of the most important responsibilities of an HOA manager is communication with homeowners.  Failing to respond to emails and phone calls or not providing adequate information about HOA meetings and decisions is poor practice and creates frustration and confusion among homeowners, leading to a breakdown in trust and a lack of cooperation. For...

What is a Self-Managed HOA? A self-managed HOA is one where the board of directors and the homeowners handle management and maintenance of the community. Specific tasks include communicating with HOA membership, collecting dues, managing finances, coordinating capital projects, enforcing bylaws, maintaining common areas, and handling disputes. Self-managed HOAs are typically run by volunteers,...

Condominium/HOA Management Services When homeowners choose to enter a condominium and/or HOA community, the goal is to reap the benefits of ownership, like financial returns and tax benefits, while sharing the physical expenses that come with owning a property amongst a collective group and ensuring the value of the asset is maintained. However, making management decisions for a condominium or...

A Guide To Local Hotspots - The Mentholatum The Mentholatum, located at 1360 Niagara Street among the City of Buffalo’s West Side neighborhoods, has been an attractive option for apartment seekers for years due to its location within the emerging Niagara Street corridor and proximity to some of the City of Buffalo’s most popular retail, dining and outdoor destinations. Check out a few of our...

Corporate units are the easy answer for many companies looking to support their traveling employees. Corporate units typically include furniture, fully equipped kitchens, housewares, and linens. The apartment complex likely offers conveniences like a fitness center, business center, lounge area and washer and dryer access if not included in-unit. Not to be confused with Airbnb or vacation type...

Just as we see changes in available apartment inventory, we also see movement in the amenities, services, and lease terms that landlords offer prospective tenants. We’ve put together a collection of questions that will help you best evaluate your options and get you started on the right path. The Lease Itself Our first round of questions focuses mainly on the lease. As a written record of the...

Whether you’re a seasoned property owner or you recently acquired a new asset, ongoing building management is no easy task. If you’re wondering if you can benefit from management services, how do you decide if you need a facilities manager, property manager, or both? Choosing the best-suited and skilled team members to service your property will end up saving you valuable time and money in the...

Facilities management is crucial for every building, and the top requested services vary among industries. Each industry and related building type has unique needs and a commonly shared interest to create and work within a facility where employees can perform their best work. As a professional facilities management firm, we manage a significantly diverse real estate portfolio and our team of...

The office environment is constantly changing to meet the needs of businesses, consumers, employees, and the community. Recent years have introduced substantial shifts, adding to the complexities of the natural ebb and flow of office trends. Property Managers are on the front lines of commercial real estate, working to find value, ensure safety and compliance, and create and engage tenants in a...

Professional facilities management services are the backbone of commercial real estate services. Facilities Management professionals are highly skilled in a variety of disciplines including project management, budgeting, and maintenance and repair. The scope of work these individuals oversee is so significant that it is quite common for them to partner with a management firm to support their...

The Lafayette Court Building located at 465 Main Street in Buffalo’s Central Business District is an icon. The 190,00 square foot landmark building was constructed in 1903 and was a popular downtown retail destination including well-known names like Hengerer’s, Sibleys and Kaufmans before being transformed into an office building in the mid 1980’s. In the decades that followed the Lafayette...

Homeowners associations (HOA) are an excellent tool used by a group of organized homeowners, typically in a large planned housing development, to help organize, inform, and enforce standards related to the presentation and upkeep of property within a development. Typically governed by a collection of volunteer residents from the neighborhood, the workload associated with various roles in the HOA...

Owning property, whether it be residential or commercial, can be a rewarding experience. After purchasing real estate, you want to guarantee your properties are protected at all costs. This means providing proper care and maintenance to all properties, a tedious undertaking when assuming sole responsibility for property management activities. If you are struggling to maintain your real estate...

Living in a community that is managed by a Homeowner Association (HOA) has an immense amount of benefits, including increase in property value, a rise in community engagement, well-maintained common areas, access to amenities, and architectural controls. Many of these responsibilities are enforced and determined by the HOA’s elected board of directors, and sometimes the tasks at hand can be...

As we enter the peak of the busiest rental and moving period, the array of available apartment options can be overwhelming. Whether you’re an experienced renter, or this is your first time renting, finding the perfect apartment that fits both your lifestyle and budget can be a difficult task. There are an endless amount of questions to consider, such as do you prefer downtown or the suburbs? A...

It seems intuitive that commercial real estate properties proximate to public transportation would be more sought after, and would, therefore, have higher property values and draw higher rental rates. While intuition is important in commercial real estate, facts must always support our thinking. So, let’s take a look at some of the data that confirms a longstanding rule of real estate...

Brokerage Services There is no blueprint to follow when it comes to handling the changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, there is only reliance on our previous experience, real time updates from our global network and confidence that we can be industry leaders in this time of crisis. How Can We Help? As professionals in real estate brokerage, Ciminelli has taken on the role...